Help - Heater don't work!

It's beginning to sound lke faulty head gasket. Find a garage that can do a compression test for you.

revjames have you checked that the radiator is uniformly hot/warm all over the core (remove top small cowl and there is room to get your hand in, but not with engine running please), as it could be a blocked radiator core that is causing your problem. if not that i would consider HGF

Its beginning to look that way. Theres air in the system. I keep bleeding it out but theres more getting in. It could be coming from the cyls I guess. A sniffer test can tell if theres any co3 in the water and thus prove if gases from combustion are getting into yer watter.

i believe sniffer test will only work with petrol guzzlers, you replaced the "p" gasket not so long ago, was there any radweld or similair used before that was replaced?

stig said:

i believe sniffer test will only work with petrol guzzlers, you replaced the "p" gasket not so long ago, was there any radweld or similair used before that was replaced?

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Thanks for that Stig, yes I put radweld in a few months ago. Just been out and took the cowl off and put my hand in there. Bearing in mind I have only been back 15 mins from a 45 mile drive, the top half was fairly hot and the bottom half cold. Do you reckon I should take it out and flush it? if so which way? water in bottom and out top?

If thatys the cause I still don't understan how that affects the heater?

if radweld (the scourge of cooling systems) has been used i would say that your rad is blocked and no amount of flushing will remove it

so a new rad then? do you think it should have been hot all over?

should certainly be a uniform temp all over at this time after your journey. Trouble with the 300 rad is that the top and bottom hoses are in line with each other that then means that the water is crossflow in direction which is fine when no blockage but as soon as the fins block it reduces the capacity and can create large air locks and stop the flow of the coolant and also as you have experienced not to be able to fill or bleed the system correctly.

a rad is better than a HGF though. Still £120 not a huge amount. I suppose I could buy the missus one for Christmas.....

£90 + drat up here

stig said:

£90 + drat up here

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wheres that from?

revjames said:

wheres that from?

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my local indy

revjames have you checked that the radiator is uniformly hot/warm all over the core (remove top small cowl and there is room to get your hand in, but not with engine running please)

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Already done that bit stig!

Did something clever and checked if the top hose was pressurised and caught my finger in the water pump pulley and received a nasty gash to my index finger. The guy that fixed my finger in A&E was a LR fan as well and had a 200TDi so was sympathetic!

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And this was seid before you put the stuff in!

Radweld is a last resort. It will settle in the water passages in the block and radiator and heater matrix and clog them up a little.

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Aw come on, don't rub my nose in it. This has been a huge learning curve for me. The most expensive thing so far is the antifreeze, 3 times I have been confident that I've fixed it and 3 times its all comeout on the floor! I shall make some enquiries and see where I can get one from, locally if poss.

Anyway Jason and Stig particularly, thanks for your patience and informative non p taking (mostly) replies.

before you buy a new rad take the old one out, block an outlet and fill it with water - tip the water out and measure how much it took to fill

then get a high pressure hose and flush (in both directions) - get some liquid kettle descaler and leave it in, or another else that's able to loosen the scale that will have built up on the inards

then flush again and see if the rad takes more water to fill it

Another tip to clean water systems is to use a quantity of LIQUID dishwasher liquid in with the cooling system. That clears tons of crud out, but be aware - it WILL find any leaks. Dont leave it in too long, because it is caustic.

Well, spoke to my local LR garage (not main stealers) they reckon waste of time trying to flush it out esp if its had the dreaded radweld in it( same as Stigs advice) . Just nursed it to Serck in Gaerwen (16 miles) at a steady 45 with the needle just on the high end of normal. Got there and checked the core tep again and sure enough hot at the top and no where else so I bit the bullet and bought a new one £90 + Vat. Doesnt look too hard putting new one in.

I made a previous comment about the A/C fans coming on with V high temp. Is this something thats standard or has someone modded it. I asked the question here previously about taking the viscous fan off and using the A/C fans. It must be some kind of safety back up system. It was really hot when they came on.

Took rad out. It did look a mess and appeared to have a couple of repairs on it. So decided to go with the new one. Put it in filled it up, went to Valley, temp up but not as high as before, however still in the top end of the normal range and STILL no heaters! I am going to take it to a local garage and get them to do a test for HGF.

How do, again,

We've been having similar toils and trials too.

We put some k-seal in to it, and it seemed to solve it, car got warm, if not hot! gurgling carried on, then went on a 30 mile drive, stopped, fine, moved another 2 miles, and now we've had a bigger blow out.

Took it to the local indy, put a pressure tester on the expansion tank, and water poured and poured from the rad. Theres a hole in it somewhere at bottom, so i'm going for a new rad, and gasket for the hell of it.

The indy guy said the gurgling sound through the air vents is air in the system thats come in through the hole, as its only leaking when not under pressure (i.e. engine off).

It won't be done till next week, so will let you know how it goes on, gonna renew all the clips and inspect EVERY hose while i'm at it. Replacing if needed. Handy having an auto shop open 9-9 7 days a week!

also, brass radiator plugs are a marvel!!

I think I've established its HGF now (see blown head gasket thread by iannotts I hijacked) The rad was partially blocked so I replaced it anyway and the system is still holding pressure after a day without use so theres not much else it can be. Going to take the head off tomorrow and hopefully find the problem.

Thanks for the reply!